Eternal Justification
Romans 8:30
We were "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6) from everlasting.
If we were accepted in him, we were considered righteous in him. If God looked
upon us as righteous, he looked upon us as justified. The only righteousness we
could have possessed was imputed righteousness.
Justification is one of those "all spiritual blessings" with
which God's elect were blessed in Christ before the world began (Eph. 1:3; II
Tim. 1:9). The whole package of salvation was given to us in Christ in the
covenant of grace before the foundation of the world. "We may say of all
spiritual blessings in Christ what is said of Christ, that `his goings forth are
from everlasting'" - (Thomas Goodwin).
Christ became our Surety in the everlasting covenant (Heb.
The Lord Jesus Christ was, in the mind and purpose of God, "the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). If the Father looked
upon the Son as the Lamb slain, he looked upon him as the propitiation,
atonement, and satisfaction for the sins of his people; and he looked upon us as
redeemed and justified by the blood of the Lamb.
Moreover, all the Old Testament believers were accepted of God and
justified upon the basis of Christ's promise to fulfill all righteousness (Rom.
Don Fortner